Trust and Consequences

There are times that decisions seem so easy and yet you feel yourself pulled in another direction. I had one of those circumstances recently and it turned out to be pretty huge for me. There was something I was to participate in and it was significant and prestigious yet as it came closer I felt myself drawn to an alternative that seemed frivolous and less important than the more public event. It was a no brainer. Yet in the end I switched to the one that didn’t seem to make sense and it was absolutely the right thing to do. Was it hard?

It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in several years.

Yet in the end it was absolutely correct. So why was it so difficult to come to this conclusion? It comes down to trust and consequences. We read in the Bible:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight (Prov.3:5-6)

Easier said than done.

I prayed, talked, cried, and negotiated about this. I became very clever and found an ‘out’ but that door was closed. In the end I had to choose, and I did; forsaking the one that made sense from a worldly standpoint for the one that seemed silly.

Yet it was absolutely the right thing to do (have I mentioned that yet??).

As I pondered this after the fact, I began to realize it actually wasn’t so hard a decision…as long as I had the right currency. When I re-evaluated, and re-valued, the two opportunities it became obvious. When I looked at it from an eternal, Christ-centered perspective it changed. When I sought to store up my treasures in heaven rather than on earth (Matt. 6:19-21) the answer became clear (not quite crystal, but that’s for another blog!).

There are consequences to trust: there’s a sense of vulnerability, uncertainty, apprehension, but as I’ve found, there is also tremendous joy and happiness to taking a step of faith and trusting. We spend too much time pondering the negative consequences and forget the benefits of obedience. Thank God I figured this out before hand and not in hindsight which has happened far too often.

As the old hymn goes, trust and obey, when there’s no other way, because in reality there isn’t-there’s God’s way or our way. I chose God’s way and I can’t stop smiling.